Guild
Ball takes place in a land now known as the Empire of Free Cities;
it’s essentially a pseudo-historical setting with strong European
flavours. The lands of the empire are made up of a huge variety of
climates, cultures and landscapes each controlled by a sovereign
City.

Mob
football is a game generally played between neighbouring towns and
villages on feast days (hence the popularity). The game was
originally played in the middle of towns and villages where the
objective was to take the ball to the opposing side of town. But to
prevent the inevitable collateral damage it rapidly evolved into
being played in the surrounding countryside, often in a special field
set aside for the purpose. At its core, players on opposing teams,
clash and struggle to control leather wrapped inflated pig's bladder
and attempt to kick it into the opponent’s goal. Over the years,
rudimentary leagues and tournaments have sprung up, there have even
been some national level games between city states.

The Guilds have taken advantage of the huge popularity of the sport and have invested vast sums of money, creating professional teams and structured leagues. The public went crazy as the game was elevated to new heights of spectacle. Guild Ball was born
amidst a blaze of interest and publicity and with it, a whole new
business and revenue stream for the Guilds. Games are now played out
in front of vast crowds of fans, whilst behind the scenes the
results can mean fortunes are won or lost on the kick of a ball.

The
game has been built from the ground up using modern design principles
and philosophy resulting in a game that is supremely intuitive to
learn and yet possess vast depths of complexity and tactical choices.
Success comes with carefully constructed ‘plays’ and counter
‘plays’ with emphasis on anticipation, positioning and resource
management.

Key
features:

Tabletop
sports wargame…

Guild
Ball is a pure skirmish level wargame, not a boardgame. Players will
enjoy the freedom of movement and complexity of decision making this
entails. Additionally, uniquely for this genre of game, terrain can
have a major impact on the gameplay.

Football
Pitches…

Guild
Ball is played in all across the Empire of Free Cities encompassing a
wide variety of terrain which in turn allows for huge variety of
playing surfaces and landscapes. Guild Ball is a 28mm miniatures game played on a 3x3 tabletop
and so you can use your existing terrain to create exciting playing
areas (no grid system).

Fast
Resolution Hit System…

Guild
Ball’s core dice engine is designed to be fast and easy to perform,
makes the game silky smooth to play. Using classic D6’s with an
intuitive dice pool system, hit resolution is lighting fast with
minimal computations.

Playbook…

Whilst
the hit resolution system is fast and intuitive, the playbook allows
for a huge variety of outcomes to each dice roll. You decide the
in-game effect you need to deliver success…if you get enough hits
of course!

Example of the Front Side of Boar's Card.

Influence
System…

Guild
uses a resource management called Influence to control actions and
movement each turn. This leads to an intense bluffing and
counter-bluffing meta-game as well as a need for deep risk management
and turn planning.

Momentum
System…

Guild
Ball features a unique system that reflects the ebb and flow of a
football match. As players perform and achieve in-game actions they
generate Momentum which can in turn be spent on triggering special
‘plays’, shooting at goal or out of turn reaction moves. Any
momentum left over at the end of the turn translates into a massive
advantage on determining initiative the following turn.

Combo
Play…

Guild
Ball models are carefully designed to play off and feed into each
other. Clever players will discover a huge depth of strategy
available to them, which will be reinvigorated each and every time a
new model is added to the Guild’s roster of choices.

Kicking/Passing…

We’ve
designed Guild Ball to encourage kicking and passing the ball. The
game actively rewards you for doing so, which results in a fast paced
dynamic game flow. Like all our game mechanics, kicking the ball is
fast and simple to do.

Build
the team you want to play…

Guild
Ball uses a fast team sheet generation approach with built in
customisability for each model which allows you, the player, the
maximum amount of control over flexibility of options versus
simplicity of models abilities. You decide your strategy and the team
you need to deliver on it.

From
the outset, the art brief for Guild Ball miniatures focused on two
key areas; minis that were inspiring to paint but also imminently
useable as gaming pieces.

We
teamed up with the best sculptor and miniature manufacturer in the UK
and coupled this with a brand new digital pipeline using the very
latest in 3D printing technology to deliver outstanding results.

Every
miniature is carefully considered in terms of pose, dynamics, the
variety of textures, the availability of paint surface area (for
freehand, team colours etc.) as well as fully supporting the look and
feel of the Guild Ball setting.

We
are intensely proud of our miniature range and can confirm they are
available in both metal and resin options.

At the moment the ONLY way to get the Resin Models is via the Kickstarter. We may be looking at exclusive diorama pieces in Resin post Kickstarter - TBC.

There
are two co-founders, Mat Hart and Rich Loxam. Further to this
core-duo, we have partnered up with video games industry art veteran,
Doug Telford, who has previously worked on titles such as Heavenly
Sword (PS3) and Kill Zone (PS3). We are also working with Russ
Charles from Clockwork Goblin who is our amazing sculptor. Russ has
recently gone full-time in terms of sculpting and has many top tier
clients including PP on his books. Griffin Miniatures deals with our
metal miniature production. We are working closely with Byron over at
Element Games (UK) to help us with distribution.

As
for our individual credentials...Mat Hart’s background is very
heavy in gaming...he’s been producing video games for the last
decade or more, with full Senior/Executive Producer credits on titles
such as Heavenly Sword [PS3], Enslaved [PS3, 360, PC], Pigsy's
Perfect 10 [PS3, 360, PC], DmC [PS3, 360] and Remember Me [PS3, 360,
PC] on his CV...he is used to working to the highest standards of
production and development and he has successfully shipped all of the
above games on time, to budget and to quality.

Rich
Loxam is a university trained digital designer (BA Hons) and
qualified teacher. He’s been teaching design principles for the
best part of 7 years and has been involved in hobby gaming for most
of his life.

The
competition side has been the biggest influence in most recent years
playing Warmachine/Hordes by Privateer Press. During the last 5-6
years he has achieved the status of UK Hardcore Champion, 1st in the
RankingsHQ league tables and consistently played at the top tables of
most events. Most recently he has been awarded best in faction (2013)
at the UK Nationals and UK Masters along with qualifying in the top
16 for the Invitational this weekend.

Alongside
his playing achievements he has also been prolific in helping the
Warmachine community grow within the UK. He is co-creator of the ETC
(European Team Championship - www.teamchampionship.eu),
helped start up SmogCon (www.smogcon.org),
run MassaCON (www.massacon.com)
and throughout this time has worked closely with various companies to
help make these events both competitive and successful - building
strong links with retailers throughout the UK and abroad.

Risks and challenges

We demand extremely high standards and will not accept below par work. Because of this, the people we have chosen to partner with are exceptional and are very much in demand. We have already secured their time and availability but this represents our greatest area of risk to the project development should our chosen partners become unavailable for any reason (illness etc.).

We have built strong relationships with everyone at every point in our supply chain, from artwork through to distribution but this is a new enterprise and there will be some teething problems. We have allowed contingency in our project time estimates to accommodate this kind of delay should it happen.

Our core team has the core skill set required to deliver a project of this size. We have vastly experienced retail support (thanks Element Games!) on our side along with vast project management experience in delivering complex creative lead projects (of up to £25m in value!). We are totally focused on transparency of development and delivering this project on time and have the skills and knowledge to do exactly that.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £150 or more
About $188

RETAILER ONLY - CORE BUNDLE (2 Teams). A brilliant launch package for your store. Contains a combination of starter sets, additional blisters and FREE extras/demo set for your store - all at incredible trade value! You will also be listed on the GuildBall.com website as a Guild Ball supporter and stockist. For full details including shipping costs and full contents along with Add-On options please email: distribution@guildball.com

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £300 or more
About $376

RETAILER ONLY - EXPANDED BUNDLE (4 Teams). A brilliant launch package for your store. Contains a combination of starter sets, additional blisters and FREE extras/demo set for your store - all at incredible trade value! You will also be listed on the GuildBall.com website as a Guild Ball supporter and stockist. For full details including shipping costs and full contents along with Add-On options please email: distribution@guildball.com

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £500 or more
About $626

GUILD INSIDER - Exclusive access to regular design email discussions / Guild Insider forum areas; partake and share your ideas and views on the ongoing development. This is your chance to become a key player involved in the ongoing development of Guild Ball.

Includes one of every release on Kickstarter (In Resin or Metal if you prefer) and all Stretch Goals; Dice Set; Token Set; Additional Ball Set; Guild Ball Resin Bases for each model; Copy of the Digital PDF Rulebook; full participation in the Post KS Field Test. FREE P&P WORLDWIDE. BONUS! Add-On's of Custom Guild Ball KR Multicase, Template Set, Custom Avatar/Forum Status, Guild Ball Patch and A5 Rulebook. TIME LIMITED OFFER - ENDS 16th MARCH at this price!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £600 or more
About $751

RETAILER ONLY - COMPLETE BUNDLE (8 Teams). A brilliant launch package for your store. Contains a combination of starter sets, additional blisters and FREE extras/demo set for your store - all at incredible trade value! You will also be listed on the GuildBall.com website as a Guild Ball supporter and stockist. For full details including shipping costs and full contents along with Add-On options please email: distribution@guildball.com

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £1,000 or more
About $1,251

CHARACTER BUILDER - Work with us to design your own character in the Guild team of your choice. Includes the game design, directing and reviewing the concept art, the miniature design and then writing the background to fit your character into the world. Work with our amazing team to produce an amazing ‘permanent’ part of Guild Ball history. Receive a copy of the Resin Master and First Production Metal Model! The model created will be available via retail stores post KS for all Guild Ball players to enjoy.

Includes one of every release on Kickstarter (In Resin or Metal if you prefer) and all Stretch Goals; Dice Set; Token Set; Additional Ball Set; Guild Ball Resin Bases for each model; Copy of the Digital PDF Rulebook; full participation in the Post KS Field Test. FREE P&P WORLDWIDE.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £5,000 or more
About $6,253

GUILD MASTER - Work with us to design your choice of Guild team, including the full initial starting roster of 6 models. The whole process includes the game design, directing and reviewing the concept art, the miniature design and then writing the background to fit your Guild and characters into the world. Work with our amazing team to produce an amazing ‘permanent’ part of Guild Ball history. Receive a copy of the Resin Masters and First Production Metal Models! The models created will be available via retail stores post KS for all Guild Ball players to enjoy.

Includes one of every release on Kickstarter (In Resin or Metal if you prefer) and all Stretch Goals; Dice Set; Token Set; Additional Ball Set; Guild Ball Resin Bases for each model; Copy of the Digital PDF Rulebook; full participation in the Post KS Field Test. FREE P&P WORLDWIDE.